Phonemic carryover perseveration: word blends

This article will outline and describe the aphasic disorder of recurrent perseveration and will demonstrate how it interacts with the retrieval and production of spoken words in the language of fluent aphasic patients who have sustained damage to the left (dominant) posterior temporoparietal lobe. We will concentrate on the various kinds of sublexical segmental perseverations (the so-called phonemic carryovers of Santo Pietro and Rigrodsky) that most often play a role in the generation of word blendings. We will show how perseverative blends allow the clinician to better understand the dynamics of word and syllable production in fluent aphasia by scrutinizing the "onset/rime" and "onset/superrime" constituents of monosyllabic and polysyllabic words, respectively. We will demonstrate to the speech language pathologist the importance of the trochee stress pattern and the possibility that its metrical template may constitute a structural unit that can be perseverated.